October 7th, 1943 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: England, the VIII Bomber Command flies Mission 110. During the night of 7/8 October, 4 B-17 Flying Fortresses drop 240,352 leaflets over Paris at 2257-2307 hours.
Frigate HMS Balfour is commissioned.
NETHERLANDS: Fifteen RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines in the Frisian Islands.
FRANCE: During the night of 7/8 October, four USAAF Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses drop 240,352 leaflets over Paris at 2257-2307 hours. Meanwhile RAF Bomber Command lay mines off three U-boat bases in the Bay of Biscay: five lay mines off Brest, four off Lorient and three off St. Nazaire with the loss of one aircraft. In another mission, 13 RAF bombers drop leaflets over northern France.
GERMANY: An order is issued by the Luftwaffe for the establishment of a number of night ground-attack groups within the service. Thus a number of Störkampfstaffeln (Harassing Squadrons) already operating are put on a more organised footing. The main equipment of these units are the Arado 66 and Gotha 145 two seat trainers equipped to carry 2 and 4 kg anti-personnel bombs. (21)
During the night of 7/8 October, RAF Bomber Command sends 343 Lancasters to bomb Stuttgart; 314 actually bomb the target. The first aircraft to be equipped with ABC, (night-fighter communications jamming known by the crews as “Airborne Cigar”), from 101 Squadron is operated tonight. The German night-fighter controller is confused by the Mosquito diversion on Munich and only a few night fighters reach Stuttgart at the end of the attack; four Lancasters are lost, 1.2 per cent of the force. The target area is cloud-covered and the H2S radar Pathfinder marking developed in two areas. In another mission, 15 Lancasters carry out a diversionary raid without loss and claim hits on the Zeppelin factory at Friedrichshafen. Bomber Command Mosquitos are also active with ten bombing Munich, seven hitting Emden and five attacking Aachen.
U-350, U-862, U-998 and U-1193 are commissioned.
U.S.S.R.: Nevel, a rail center north of Vitebsk, and Taman fall to Soviet forces. A lull in fighting begins along the Dniepr River south of Kiev as the Soviet forces pause to bring up supplies and build bridges. German resistance is stiffening all along the line and the progress of Red Army is becoming less spectacular.
ITALY: The U.S. Fifth Army begins preparations for an assault across the Volturno River. The crossing date is set tentatively at the night of 9/10 October and later postponed to the night pf 12/13. The U.S. VI and British X Corps improve positions along the southern bank of the river. In the British Eighth Army’s XIII Corps area, another brigade of the 78th Division, the last to arrive in Italy, lands in the Biferno bridgehead as the Germans retire across Trigno River.
Bad weather cancels many operations. Northwest African Tactical Bomber Force medium and light bombers strike roads, railway, junction, and town areas in the Capua and Guglionesi regions while RAF Desert Air Force fighter-bombers hit trucks in the Termoli-Vasto areas.
German forces withdraw around Termoli and fall back behind the Trigno River. Montgomery does not follow closely.
GREECE: USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-24 Liberators attack two targets: 24 bomb Kastelli Airfield while 11 bomb Maritza Airfield on Rhodes.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: A German convoy bound for Kos in the Aegean Sea is intercepted by 2 cruisers and 2 destroyers. The British Task Force sinks 7 transports and one destroyer.
Bad luck for U-81 in the Mediterranean. The boat attacked an Italian freighter with 6 torpedoes, but all missed. (Good luck for the Italian!)
CHINA: 4 Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells attack a 2,500-ton freighter 100 miles (160 km) S of Amoy, China scoring 3 direct hits; the vessel is left burning and listing.
FRENCH INDOCHINA: The Fourteenth Air Force dispatches 9 B-24s and 22 fighters to hit a cement plant at Haiphong causing heavy damage to the kiln building.
NEW GUINEA: In North East New Guinea, the Australian 2/17th Battalion continues battling the Japanese at Kumawa in the Finschhafen area.
PACIFIC OCEAN: Submarine USS R-44 sunk by the Japanese Shimushu class escort vessel Ishigaki. Two Survivors were picked up and ended up in captivity.
In the Formosa Strait, four USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells attack a 2,500-ton freighter 100 miles (160 km) south of Amoy, China scoring three direct hits; the vessel is left burning and listing.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: The Japanese complete evacuation of Vella Lavella Island.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: A Fifth Air Force B-24 on patrol bombs Umboi Island, scoring damaging hits on several buildings.
WAKE ISLAND IJN Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara, commander of the Japanese garrison on the island, orders the execution of 96 American civilian construction workers who have been held on the island since the American surrender in December 1941. The men are marched to the beach and machine gunned. This followed two days of attacks by a USN task force (see 5 October). I have heard two claims of why the men were executed, (1) the Japanese claimed the civilians were trying to make radio contact with the task force and (2) the Japanese were afraid that the U.S. was going to invade the island and the civilian prisoners would tell the invaders where the Japanese defensive positions were and how weak they were. After the war, the Sakaibara, and eleven of his officers, were sentenced to death by a US Naval Court at Kwajalein.
CANADA: Destroyer HMCS Cayuga laid down Halifax, Nova Scotia.
U.S.A.: Baseball!Destroyer escorts USS Thornhill and USS Wingfield are laid down.
Destroyer escorts USS Edward H Allen & Tweedy launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-703 picked up three survivors from Hope Island in the Arctic Sea (Grid AC 12). The three people (two men and a woman) were the last survivors from the Soviet steamer Dekabrist, which had been sunk on 5 Nov 1942 by a JU-88 aircraft. The entire crew had escaped to this island. In May 1943 they were detected by an He-111 aircraft and on 24 July, 1943, U-354 picked up the ship's master, leaving the remaining survivors behind but providing food and vitamin tablets. When U-703 reached the island in September, three of those stranded still lived. The U-boat crew enjoyed watching these people, with the help of lots of food and care, come slowly back to human civilization after living nearly a year on such an island.